


Beyond the Edge of Shadow

by thedisassociation



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: girls supporting girls and being friends, the Vampire Slayer AU no one asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-02-28 12:53:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13271850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedisassociation/pseuds/thedisassociation
Summary: As the Vampire Slayer, Karolina Dean is the light that scares the monsters in the dark. Gert and Molly hold their own in the battle against evil and Karolina is eternally grateful for their help. Unfortunately, some of the monsters in the dark are pretty girls named Nico who want to live in the light. The Karolina/Nico Vampire Slayer AU no one asked for.





	1. The Beginning

The evening air is warm as it wraps and settles around her, and she feels the sun about to finally pass completely below the horizon. She doesn't see it, but she can feel it deep in her bones, coursing through her muscles and her instincts all at once. Part of her Slayer senses. She can feel the sunset and the moonrise and the movement of darkness across the Hellmouth.

Gert catches her attention down the alley, purple hair glowing in the streetlights outside the Bronze. "Karolina!" she calls out. Beside her, Molly pulls down her hat a bit and waves.

Karolina pushes down the rising sense of urgency that always catches her when the night comes and makes her way towards the other two girls in line. She grins and hugs Molly.

"Finally," Gert says. "It's bad enough we have to come here to the seat of teenage hormones and drama. I was starting to think you weren't gonna show."

Karolina laughs, a throaty chuckle. "I'm like, five minutes late," she replies. "I had a hard time getting away from my mom tonight."

"So did we. That's why I asked early and not when we were halfway out the door," Gert says knowingly, shooting her a look.

The door to the nightclub opens and music fills the alley, a loud and pumping bass rushing over them. If Karolina concentrates hard enough, she can feel all of the heartbeats inside, a mass of humanity filling the Bronze.

Ahead of them, a few groups of teenagers are allowed to enter, and they follow along, inching closer and closer to the entrance. When she glances behind her, Karolina does a double take at the sight of a girl she doesn't think she's ever seen before. She's small and dressed all in black--even in heeled boots she is shorter than Karolina--and her hair is carefully styled to look effortlessly complex. She is pretty, strikingly so. Her eyes are deep and dark and Karolina panics because they are looking at her. She turns away quickly, feels herself release a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Gert is giving her another knowing look, smirking at her. "See something you like?" She leans around Karolina and sees the girl the blonde was staring at. When she looks back at her friend, Karolina is blushing.

Molly rolls her eyes and grabs Gert's arm in one hand and Karolina's in the other. "Come on," she groans. "It’s our turn."

Karolina spares one last look behind her, finding the dark-eyed girl easily. The object of her gaze is looking back at her and biting her lip and then everything around Karolina is swallowed in the pulsing sound of music, the strobe lights, and the hidden darkness of the club corners.

Lucky for her, they've both come to the same place for the night.

xx

The Hellmouth entrance is across town, hidden under the library of all places. It's probably appropriate that the gateway to a hell dimension from which all manner of evil and badness comes from is beneath a school. Even from a distance, even with the strong reverberation of the music in the Bronze, the heat of the lights and the bodies pressed in all around her, Karolina can feel it reaching out to her, beckoning her closer to the darkness, warning her that her place as protector of humanity is always precarious. If the darkness reaches out far enough, it will cover everyone, including her. It creeps outward, slow and insidious until it isn't, until its violence explodes all at once.

Molly leads them towards a high table with stools just as a group of teenagers is getting ready to vacate. She glares at anyone who even looks at the table until only she, Gert, and Karolina are left.

They take the stools that have been left at the table and get seated. Molly is already bouncing to the music, ready to dance. Gert is looking around cautiously, doing what Karolina should be doing, scoping the place out for shady characters, those who lurk in the dark corners waiting for the nearest seducible youth.

"I'll get us some water and soda," Gert essentially shouts to the two of them.

Molly clearly has no idea what Gert's said, but she nods anyway. Karolina, her senses heightened and strong—more Slayer powers—hears every word. Gert takes off for the bar and Karolina watches her purple hair as she weaves her way through the crowd.

Her gaze moves from Gert and she surveys the Bronze. There are the familiar teenagers and college kids out for the night, enjoying the only real entertainment available to them. There are the older college crowd, the ones here to drink and buy drinks for their younger friends. And yep, there's one of them, a twenty-something guy hanging out upstairs. He has on the standard issue leather jacket and mysterious bad boy demeanor (she's pretty sure there is a store near the cemetery that caters to the newly-risen vampires, stocking them with leather jackets, all black ensembles, and the like.) She puts him on her mental watchlist, keeping track of him as he moved around above the dance floor, staring at the dancers below him.

When she looks back down, she sees Molly practically dancing in her seat in her peripheral vision. Directly in front of her stands the girl from outside and Karolina blinks at her, feels her heart rate speed up.

"Hi," she smiles. Her voice was too quiet to carry over the music, but she can’t bring herself to yell.

The other girl smiles back, and Karolina mentally blames the girl's dark lipstick on the way she looks at her mouth for longer than is probably appropriate. "Hi," the girl says back. Her skin looks soft and Karolina longs to touch it. "I'm Nico."

She holds her hand out and Karolina takes it, shakes it lightly. "Karolina," she answers. They aren't loud, but they still manage to hear one another over the music as it shifts to a slower beat, the notes extended over greater time. Hips and hands on the dance floor shift differently in response, from bombastic and fast to slow and languid.

"Wanna dance?" the girl, Nico, asks.

Karolina immediately looks to Molly, unwilling to leave her by herself. Molly sees her look and rolls her eyes. "Oh my god, go," she says. "I'm a big girl," she gestures behind Nico, "and Gert's right there."

Gert makes it back to the table with three cups and slides next to Nico, glancing at her and sitting the drinks down. "I'm Gert," she introduces, "that's Molly."

Nico, gaze fixed on Karolina, replies with her name.

Gert looks between Karolina and Nico, struggling to suppress an eye roll that matches Molly's. She gives Molly a look and Molly nudges Karolina off her stool. "Go away," she says, adding a quiet "useless lesbian" that would go unheard by anyone without enhanced hearing. Karolina glares at her because Gert knows she would hear, and Gert smiled at her.

Nico grins now, and bites her lip the same way she did outside, holding a hand out and waiting for Karolina to take it.

Nico's hand is cool, is the first thing Karolina notes as she's pulled away from her friends. Her skin is soft and her grip is strong as she leads Karolina into the crowd of people dancing. She finds a place towards the outskirts of the dancers and pulls Karolina close to her, which isn't difficult as the mass of moving bodies presses in around them.

Karolina feels the people pushing into them the same way she feels the night push further towards darkness, towards some inevitably nefarious conclusion. She pushes it down and then Nico's hands are on her hips and the thought is gone at the press of their bodies together to the rhythm of the music. She looks down to meet Nico's eyes and places her hands on Nico's shoulders, feeling the rough black fabric beneath her fingers. Something captivates her here in this moment between them, and she sees the echo of her own attraction on Nico's features. She could lean forward a few inches and kiss this stranger and be perfectly content doing it. One of Nico's hands trails up her arm slowly, nails lightly brushing over her skin.

"Can I —" she starts to ask, but her thoughts are interrupted as her Slayer senses pick up on the sounds of a struggle outside, a scream lost in the night. "Fuck," she pulls away reluctantly. "I have to go. I'm _really_ sorry," she tells Nico. "Like, _really_ sorry."

She rushes off the dance floor, looks up to find an empty space where the male vampire had been earlier. She's supposed to grab Gert in these situations—"we stick together," Gert always says—but there's no time. Karolina is already running late.

When she bursts outside, she sees the vampire immediately. He's holding a young woman in his arms, pressing her against the brick wall of the nightclub. To anyone else, it would look like a heated make out session; to Karolina, it's the fading heartbeat of a woman as her blood is sucked from her body. It beats in her ears in between her own heartbeat, and she lunges forward, pulling the vampire away from the woman.

"What the fuck?" he cries, sharp vampiric features twisted into a snarl.

Karolina grabs him by the lapels of his leather jacket. Imitation leather, she notes. Behind her, she recognizes the familiar energies of Gert and Molly coming outside. She throws the vampire to the ground across the alley, standing between him and his prey, shielding her as well as Gert and Molly, who've moved to help the woman to her feet.

Karolina pulls her wooden stake from inside her jacket and rushes towards the vampire as he jumps up. He's an imitation leather bad boy, freshly turned, but he tries to put up a fight. He swings at her and she ducks instinctively, sweeping his legs out from under him in a fluid motion.

"Fucking Slayer," he spits out, trying to push her away. But she's too fast and her stake pierces his non-beating heart.

When she stands, his body bursts into dust and spreads out over the alley, mingling with the dust of an untold number of vampires staked in the same place. Karolina meets Gert, Molly, and the woman, quickly checking them over for injuries.

Distracted, Karolina misses the figures silently watching just past the edge of the shadows. If they'd had heartbeats, she might have sensed them.

"Nico, isn't that the girl you were—"

"Shit."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has commented and left kudos. I appreciate every single one of you. I've had a hard time writing for the last couple of years, and it means a lot that my first forays back into it have been received so well.

"Nico, this is bad."

She rolls her eyes in annoyance, carefully stepping through the grass lawn of the local football field in her boots. "No shit," she replies.

Beside her, Alex moves with considerably less care, brows furrowing. "I mean, if your mom finds out you were making moves on the Slayer --"

"I was _not_ ," she cuts him off. Nico doesn't need anyone to tell her what Tina's reaction would be. "And even if I were, which I'm not, my mom doesn't need to hear all about it."

Alex doesn't say anything. There's a vague threat left hanging between her words, but he's used to it.

The pass by the bleachers next to the field and continue moving through the parking lot towards a side street. "She goes to school here," Nico thinks, looking up at the tall windows and thick columns of the high school entranceway.

"Of course she has to be the Slayer," she mutters, sensing Alex smirk beside her.

A handful of dark clouds dot the sky in greys and blacks, a fitting compliment to her mood. The night has left her unfulfilled, hungry and full of unspent energy that she can't release.

They wind their way silently down several streets, leaving the high school behind in favor of the suburbs. The pair sticks to the shadows, keeping an ear out for vehicles that might spot them, until they arrive home.

Home is a simple unlit house on the edge of town, perpetually for sale despite the occasional interested buyer. It is maintained but seems to sit empty to any humans who might wander by. To Nico and Alex, it is only a facade that masks the large underground complex lurking below the quiet suburban streets of their town.

They make their way around to the back of the house and Nico keeps watch while Alex inputs a series of codes into the keypad by the basement door, which sits at the bottom of a long staircase. It doesn't take him long to unlock the entrance, but Nico stays alert regardless. With the way her night's going, she figures it would be her luck that Karolina somehow followed her home and found out her secret.

The locks inside the door move, silent to those without their supernatural senses, and Alex swings it open, letting Nico lead the way down into the spacious underground home their parents commissioned for them when they moved to be closer to the Hellmouth. They claimed it would enhance their powers, make them stronger, better. And sure, she can feel its energy, its deep connection to the darkness and decay of their underworld, but she finds no comfort in its cold embrace.

Nico and Alex move down the long entrance hallway, past an assortment of thick oak doors, some with symbols carved into them. She pulls out her phone as she walks by, just to fight how archaic the whole place feels. She doesn't do much with her phone, but its familiar technological weight in her hand helps ground her, reminds her that they aren't in the nineteenth century. Even though she and her parents were turned within the five years, somehow her mom and dad had latched on to some old ideals and ways of being a vampire--Master this, prophecy that--even as they designed a brilliant artificial intelligence to help them achieve their goals.

At the end of the hallway is an intersection. Nico wants to head left, down the stairs and through the maze to her rooms, but Alex continues moving in a straight line down the hall, shoes silent across the rich crimson carpets.

Finally they arrive at their destination, and Nico can practically hear her mother's voice on the other side of the door in the grand entrance. When they enter, a handful of vampires are milling about while the Wilders and Minorus stand together in the center of the room, bathed in the artificial light of the chandelier above them. A few scuff marks adorn the expensive marble floors and Nico adds a more of them as she and Alex meet their parents.

Tina watches her with one eyebrow raises, clearly unimpressed. No one looks particularly happy to be there.

"Nico," she nods to her daughter. "Any news on the Slayer?"

Nico shrugs one shoulder, careful to appear as disinterested as possible. "Nope. We didn't see her."

The Wilders share a look behind her mother and Nico tries to ignore it. Tina crosses her arms and even though they are almost the same height, she still manages to look down at Nico. "You've been out for hours every night and you haven't seen or heard _anything_?"

Nico stuffs her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "I don't know what to tell you. Slayer's under the radar, I guess. Right Alex?" she looks at him expectantly. It's a make-or-break moment and she waits to see which side he's going to fall on.

Alex licks his lips. "Uh, yeah," he breathes out, "we've been trying, but no luck."

Tina blinks and purses her lips, shifting her gaze from Nico to Alex and back again. "Is that so?"

Nico nods, the corners of her mouth pulling down.  The other vampires in the room make no attempt to hide their interest in the conversation, and Nico shoots a glare out at them, her top canines lengthening as her anger grows, and she knows that she is going to cut her lips like some newly risen baby vampire, but she doesn't care.

"Yes, that's so, mom," she finally says. "No Slayer."

It's a lie and a promise all at once.

Tina's eyes narrow and she hums for a brief moment. "Next time, don't just stand around watching her kill one of us."

Nico scoffs, and even Alex pulls a face, grimacing and guilty. Of course their parents already knew they'd seen the Slayer. She looks briefly at the vampires around them, wants to growl at the smirks she spots among them. It's not her lucky night.

"We all have a part to play in what's to come. Do your job."

Nico walks out immediately, hating the fact that she's going along with her mother's dismissal but unwilling to stay in Tina's presence any longer. She lifts her hands, palms upward, at Alex as if to say, "See?" and leaves him standing there with their parents in the center of a vampire-infested parlor, its attempts at something traditional and Old World ringing hollow as she uses her phone to call for a Lyft.

xx

Across town, Nico has her ride drop her off at a park. She still hasn't eaten and the thirst aches inside her, mingling with her anger at her parents uncomfortably. The blood bags she purchased are back at the underground mansion, though, and she has no interest in hunting. Not anymore. So she pushes down the discomfort and keeps her appetite in check.

She feels the breeze on her skin as she walks through the park and she sucks in a deep breath. She doesn't have to breathe anymore, but it's the kind of habit you don't forget easily and Nico finds comfort in the familiar way her lungs expand in her chest.

She wants to center herself, reach down through the black tendrils of the Hellmouth's hold on the city and feel the energy beneath it, the energy of the earth, of life, the moon and its cycles. There is a fire there, more magic than darkness and she is ready to try and connect with it.

And then a demon goes flying past her, one of its red arms almost hitting her.

"Oh, what the fuck?" she says, voice echoing out into the night.

The demon, a large humanoid figure more scales than skin, pulls itself up off the ground. It probably expects her to jump back in fear, but Nico adjusts her stance, planting her feet to square off with it if she has to.

Before either she or the demon gets a chance to attack, a tall blond figure runs out from the trees.

"Of course," Nico mutters. Her luck is turning, because it's Karolina in all her Slayer glory and she isn't sure if her luck is getting better or worse. Karolina pauses a moment when she sees Nico, recognition in her bright eyes, and Nico decides that this is definitely good luck.

"Nico," Karolina says, pushing stray hair out of her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Nico says immediately, looking the other girl over for injuries. "What about you?"

Karolina nods, eyes fixed only on Nico's.

"I hate to interrupt, but are we going to do this or not?" The demon breaks the moment between them and Nico is finally able to look away from Karolina, who's brought out a large ornate dagger that makes Nico do a double take because somehow she'd missed that detail.

Karolina's grip is strong--Nico can sense her muscles as they move and she can feel the heat emanating from her skin and she can almost hear the blood as it flows strongly through Karolina's arteries and veins and her heart is beating in her chest, a loud rhythmic steady thumping. Her voice is soft, though. "We don't have to, you know," Karolina starts. "We don't have to do this. There are other ways. You could just go home, live your life back in...wherever you're from," she finishes.

The demon blinks, or at least Nico thinks the demon blinks.

"If you stay here, I'm going to have to kill you," Karolina says and damn if she doesn't look genuinely apologetic.

The demon's answer comes in the form of a punch sent Nico's way. It almost catches her off guard because she's struck by the legitimate care on Karolina's face and the notion that the Slayer, _the_ Slayer is trying to give demons from hell dimensions chances to turn around. Her senses are stronger than the look in Karolina's eyes, only for the moment, and Nico raises an arm to block his fist with ease. She looks for a weak spot, but all she sees are scales and she's strong but she doesn't know that she can punch through whatever they're made of.

Karolina wastes no time and joins in, getting in a solid hit before Nico can. She catches him in the side of the face and one of his four arms reaches for her throat; the other arm on that side tries to grab her by the hair. Karolina meets her eyes and they have the same idea at the same moment.

Nico throws her weight at his outstretched arms, enough to catch him off guard, and Karolina manages to shift _around_ her, her front skirting close enough to Nico's back for Nico to almost be caught off guard herself. She sinks the decorated blade into the middle of his chest and he drops to the ground immediately.

Dark red blood seeps out from the wound as Karolina pulls the dagger out, shaking her head and cleaning it with a cloth she pulls out of her back pocket. The material soaks up the blood well, and it calls out to Nico for a moment before its scent reaches her fully. Demon blood is disgusting, and she grimaces, which catches Karolina's attention.

"Are you still okay?" she asks Nico. There's that genuine concern again, that great care in her voice. She moves in front of Nico, who realizes that Karolina has mistaken her disgust for something more human, like confusion or fear at the sight of the demon lying in the grass.

Nico nods. "Yeah. You?"

Karolina nods back at her and puts the dagger, now wrapped, in her back pocket. The blood is going to seep through the cloth and ruin her jeans, but it doesn't seem to bother her.

"I can't believe you tried to negotiate with a hell demon. Did you really think it was just going to leave and never come back?" Nico finally asks.

Karolina grins at her slowly, chuckles softly, just once, and it's a sound that fills Nico up with something akin to warmth. "I had to at least try."

Nico looks down at the demon and back up at Karolina. "Does it ever work?" she wonders.

Karolina is still smiling and Nico has to actively keep her fangs from growing. Karolina  _has_ to know, she thinks. There's no way she could manage to be in such close proximity to her without Karolina sensing her. "Sometimes," Karolina says honestly.

For a moment, Nico wants to believe that it could be that simple.


	3. Chapter 3

Nico has a bit of oddly thick demon blood on her skirt and she tries to brush it off. "This is never going to come out," she mutters to herself. "I'm gonna have to burn these clothes."

Karolina nods. "It sucks. I've lost a lot of really nice outfits to blood and gore."

"So, you do this often then?" she gestures to the body on the ground and smirks. It’s a ridiculous line, but the other girl doesn’t seem to mind. Karolina isn't even trying to hide her identity or play the moment off and it's strangely endearing.

"Often enough, unfortunately."

"There's a lot of bad shit in this town, huh?"

Karolina pulls a fresh cloth out–seriously, where did she keep all this stuff–and crouches in front of Nico, who swallows thickly and tries not to take a step back. "There's bad stuff everywhere," she says, the backs of her fingers brushing Nico's knee as she gently takes a hold on Nico's skirt and blots at the blood there. "There are good things, too, though," Karolina looks up at Nico, eyes shining in the glow of the moon.

She stands up after a brief time that is unbearably long, and Nico tries to let the energy of the moment go the same way she'd had to let the moment in the club go. Karolina looks pleased with herself. "It might be salvageable now."

Karolina looks so hopeful and Nico doesn't have the heart to tell her that it's not. Her senses, heightened and strong, will smell the sickening demon blood long after the skirt's been washed. "Thanks," she says, and Karolina's responding grin is worth it.

Her eyes dart down to Nico's lips. "Is it weird that I want to –"

"Nope," Nico says immediately.

Karolina lets out a light breath, visibly relieved. "Okay, good," she laughs.

Nico's pretty sure her heart is going to start beating again if Karolina keeps looking at her like that, with such expectation, with the glowing light of the moon casting a pale white into her hair, with her bright eyes and her thin lips and her light smile. But it's not beating, she reminds herself. The familiar darkness of the Hellmouth is there, just behind her, nipping at her heels. _In case you forgot_ , it says in a voice that sounds too much like her mother.

But Karolina's moving towards her anyway, leaning down so close that Nico can feel her breath across her cheek. She feels fingers across the back of her neck and she rises up on her tiptoes to meet Karolina.

"Karolina!" comes from the direction of the nearby trees.

 

Nico groans, her heels hitting the ground as she settles back on them. She lets out a breath even though she doesn't have to and Karolina steps back from her, hand sliding across the back of Nico's neck to rest on her shoulder. She's still close, so close that Nico can hear the quickness of Karolina’s beating heart pounding against her chest.

"Gert?" Karolina’s voice is slightly deeper than it was before.

"I have been looking all over for you. You didn't answer your phone," Gert finally looks at Nico, gaze bouncing between her and Karolina. Nico makes no attempt to hide her annoyance, and Karolina makes no attempt to hide her flushed cheeks.

"Sorry," Karolina offers, gesturing towards the demon nearby. "We were a little busy."

"We?"

"Nico was a big help," Karolina's voice is proud and Nico softens in response.

"I'm sure she was," Gert grins. She pulls out her phone. "I'm gonna let everyone know what's up, and then we should probably get going."

Gert makes a grand show of stepping away from them, offering some semblance of privacy to Nico and Karolina, and calls someone.

Somewhere in the commotion, Karolina's hand has slid from her shoulder. She’s holding Nico’s hand and Nico should be embarrassed at not realizing it, not sensing the immediate warmth and contact, but Karolina's hand is too comforting a weight, too soft, too sure.

Karolina squeezes her fingers. "I'm sorry we keep getting interrupted," she offers. "It's not my night, I guess."

"Not mine, either," Nico says.

"Maybe another night?"

"Definitely," she answers. It's a Bad Idea, but Nico agrees anyway because suddenly Karolina's palm is pressed against her cheek and Karolina's lips are pressed against her other cheek and fuck it, she's had way worse ideas.

"Goodnight, Nico."

"Goodnight, Karolina."

XX

Gert and Karolina walk side-by-side down the suburban streets of the residential side of town, keeping out of streetlights. "Dad said not to worry about clean-up," she says, hands in the pockets of her army jacket, "since we have school tomorrow."

Karolina nods. "Molly's at home?"

Gert gives her a small smile. "Yeah. She wanted to come back out and fight. I told her to wait ten minutes and she fell asleep."

Karolina grins back, walking backwards through the grass of the neighborhood front yards so she can look at her friend. "Lucky. I'm so tired."

"Not too tired to get up close and personal with that girl from the Bronze," Gert says. "You didn't offer to walk her home, by the way. It's been a vampy demony kind of night."

Karolina stops, and Gert almost runs into her. "Shit, you're right," she realizes, brows furrowing. She reaches out with her senses, pushes back the evil around the city the same way she pushes her comforter off in the morning. It's thick but she moves through it, listening to scattered heartbeats and shoes hitting pavement. The night is mostly quiet. "Why didn't you say anything?" she wonders aloud. "I was distracted."

"I'm tired, too," Gert says matter-of-factly. She loops an arm through one of Karolina's even as they face each other and starts moving them again towards her house.

Karolina lets the city silence wash over her in a moment of comfort that says that Nico is okay, that if she weren’t, Karolina would know. One corner of her mouth lifts. "I know. I'm sorry I worried you."

"Whatever," Gert says immediately, which just makes Karolina smile more. "Plus, I figured a vampire could probably make it back to… _wherever_ without a problem."

Karolina finally twists around to face the same way as Gert. "What vamp–"

"And isn't that against like, the Slayer code or something? I mean, I'm not going to stake someone you're into, but shouldn't you," Gert lifts a shoulder, one hand gesticulating in front of her, " _not_ be into a vampire?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Nico?” When Karolina just looks at her in clear confusion, she adds, “The girl from the Bronze and also from like, two inches in front of your face when I interrupted?"

Karolina says nothing at first and decidedly tries to not think about the girl she had been close to kissing. "What about her?"

"Seriously? The pale goth out in the middle of the night fighting demons? Total vampire, right?"

"No, she was definitely human?" Karolina nods a couple of times, mainly to herself, but her eyebrows are still furrowed and she’s biting her lip.

"Are you telling me or asking me?"

They turn on to Gert's street together. Karolina mentally runs back through the night, from catching Nico’s eye outside the club through almost kissing her. It’s a heady feeling, the memories flooding her with anticipation and excitement. Nico’s hand in hers, Nico dancing with her, Nico’s many different smiles. Nico had a heartbeat (or had that been her own heart?) and she'd been soft and warm.

Right?

Gert takes in Karolina's silence with a soft laugh. "So now the Slayer can't tell the difference between a pretty girl and a vampire. Great."

"I can! She just – I don't think she's a vampire." Karolina remembers Nico’s dark eyes in the same memory as the chill to Nico’s hands, unusual for a warm spring day in southern California but hardly proof of anything.

Gert shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "Maybe," she says, more for Karolina's sake than because she actually thinks Nico is human. She leads the blonde down the driveway towards the house, leaving the thought of probable vampires out in the night. "We have other stuff to worry about anyway. Like tomorrow's biology exam."

Karolina groans. "That’s still happening?"

XX

Nico does her best to sneak back into her home without detection. The sliding metal locks in the doors and the hardwood and marble floors don't lend themselves to quiet, but she manages almost complete silence regardless.

She feels the ghost of Karolina's hand in hers and each twist of a doorknob and keypad press against her fingers leads her further from the Slayer' s warmth.

Nico is relieved to make it to her rooms without running into anyone. The sun is going to start rising soon enough and she wants to fall into bed and sleep the daylight away. She can feel the calm settle into the mansion, as each moment closer to the sunrise sends more of their number to bed. They are creatures of the night; the light is not for them.

"Assholes," she mutters, an execration directed at all of her kind.

Nico locks her doors behind her and turns on all the lights. It's not the same, the hollow manmade LED illumination that fills her space, but it's the closest thing she has to the day. She remembers sunlight, long summer days spent outside with kids her own age, playing in the warm grass until it was time to go home. _It's too dangerous to be outside alone at night_ , her parents would say. The irony that they were the ones to turn her isn't lost on Nico.

Tomorrow, her parents and the Wilders will probably meet with their leader. Someone is going to be ordered to bring the Slayer in, _again_ , and no one is going to be pleased with the fact that Nico could have but didn't.

She sleeps with every light on, and thinks of Karolina and the kind of sunshine that burns (all of it.)

**Author's Note:**

> I am grateful to [dimplesridley](http://dimplesridley.tumblr.com/) for listening to me ramble about this idea until it turned into a story. I also hold her responsible for this.
> 
> Come talk to me on Tumblr at [thedisassociation](http://thedisassociation.tumblr.com/) if you like.


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